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User blog:WayfinderOwl/BTM: It's Tha Fifties Somewhere 3
All At Once It was one of those days. Nothing out the ordinary happen in school. Cliques still did their thing. Classes still happened. Teachers still hated their jobs. It was outside I had the problem with. Almost blizzard like winds, and hail stones. I only walked ten yards, and I was exhausted. I almost collapsed on the snowy floor once the underpass of New Coventry shielded me from the weather’s brutal attack. I already had my jacket pulled tightly around me. “Hey Josh,” said Lola, stepping out of the shadows. She walked with a seductive roll of her hips. Already I knew her game. “I’ve been looking all over for you.” “Then you haven’t been looking all that far,” I told her. “Considering I’ve been in class all day.” That was a half truth. Pete and Sarah had invited me to the movie theatre with them, but I didn’t much care for the idea of being a third wheel. “I need you to do something for me,” she said, extending her hand in the hopes to stroke my arm. I moved before she could touch me. Her hand fell through air. She looked slightly annoyed at her failed attempt to pull me under her spell. “I will be very grateful.” “No. Whatever it is, I’m not interested. You probably need an alibi while you cheat on Johnny, and hurt him even more. Well you’re not pulling me into your twisted game.” “Not even if I made it worth your while?” “Never.” She pointed an accusing finger at me. Her tone changed completely. No longer sugary sweet, taking a more angry offended tone. “You shouldn’t judge people before you know them.” “But I do know. I’ve been part of the clique a week, and I already have a pretty good idea of what you’re about. Johnny is cool and a good guy. Then you saunter in, hook your claws into him, and he turns into an angry lunatic. Too blinded by love to see how much this relationship is killing him.” Before she could say another word, I turned and walked towards New Coventry. I would much rather brave the storm, than be sucked into her sick games designed to break a guy for her amusement. Unnoticed to me before, Hal was waiting at the end of the tunnel. My heart went as cold as the snow out in the open. What had he seen? Had he heard everything. Would he tell Johnny, and Lola got what she wanted. “What was that about?” asked Hal. I looked back. Lola was already gone. “Lola. She wanted something from me. I told her she can keep me out of it. I’m not screwing over Johnny for her game.” “She is going to split this clique apart.” “Probably.” “Nah. It’s already happening. Some of the boys are sick of it. Johnny turnin’ on everyone Lola uses. He ain’t thinking straight. They wanna split off and make their own gang. Are you loyal or gonna split?” “I’m loyal to Johnny, if it comes down to it. He had my back, when he barely even knew me. When is it all going down?” “After the race. If you ain’t good enough to ride by then, Norton is going to take your place. If he wins, he is claiming the prize. Having Bullworth Town as his turf.” “Who is on our side?” “Me, you, Ricky. Peanut will stand by Johnny ‘til the end.” “Does Johnny know?” Hal shrugged. “Doubt it.” “Is he at the tenements?” Hal shrugged again. “Dunno. I gotta split, before someone hears us talking.” I nodded. With a new purpose, I headed out into the cold. The fierce storm started to give up. I was still freezing cold and almost soaking through when I reached the old shit heap of a building the greasers had claimed as their own. I found Johnny sat on the front stoop. Head buried in his hands. He had been there a while. Judging by the snow on his back. “Johnny,” I said, concerned. He didn’t even raise his head. Only able to utter a few words in the voice of someone defeated. “Hey kid.” I couldn’t tell him. He was a complete mess. Determined to at least get him out the cold, I pushed open the tenement doors. Told him to lean on me. He clung to me for support, because his own legs seemed unwilling to co-operate. I steered him into one of the rooms. He sank into a dirty old sofa. Pulled a pack of cigarettes from his jacket pocket, lit one up and smoked in silence, staring at a crack in the floor tiles. After twenty minutes of silence, he found his voice again. “Lola is cheating on me. With that Gord kid. And Chad. Algernon. The list gets bigger.” “I know.” He shot me a suspicious look. “About Gord and Chad, I mean. They used to brag about it, when they thought I wasn’t there. Not to each other. I don’t think they knew they were dating the same girl. Or maybe they did. I don’t know.” I realized I was babbling, I decided to stop. In silence I sat down at the other end of the couch. “Has she tried getting together with you?” A loaded question. If I told him no, I would be lying to him. Betraying his trust. When he found out the truth, he would turn on me. If I told him the truth and explained I turned her down, he would never believe me. In a reckless move, I decided to just be straight with him. “Yeah. While I was on my way over here. I bumped into her at the underpass. She wanted something, tried flirting with me, but I turned her down and made it clear I’m not interested in her games, and nothing will happen between us.” Johnny fell silent again, lit up another cigarette and smoked it while the gears in his mind were whirling. Seeing him like this made him scarier than Derby. Yes, Derby did stare us down and act calculating, before delivering his verdict, but Johnny was more volatile. At any second he could fly into a jealous rage, and hit me. “I got to make them pay for making a fool of me,” he muttered. “No, Johnny, you don’t. Open your eyes. You’re killing yourself. Even some of the people who look up to you are starting to question their loyalty to you. You have to break up with Lola, and either get used to being alone for a while, or find a girl who isn’t going to get off on making you hurt like this.” “He’s right,” came from near the door. Peanut leaned on the frame. “I’ve told ya the same loads of times.” I knew this was big, and it would take something equally big to snap him out of his delusion that he could be happy the way things are. Pete and Sarah sprang to mind. I had set them up, and they couldn’t be happier. Exhaling, I babbled, “What if you went out with a girl nothing like Lola, had a good time. Would that make you see you can do better than this?” Both Johnny and Peanut looked quite taken back. “Me, cheat on Lola?” said Johnny, stunned. “Yeah. Normally it is wrong,” I said. “But she is going to keep on cheating. Sometimes fighting fire with fire works. Metaphorically. Either she will see other girls can make you happy and stop cheating, or you realize you don’t need her and find someone else who only wants to be with you.” “Then we won’t end up with some in clique war,” Peanut added. Oh, so he knew about Norton’s plans then. “Let them. Norton can have Bullworth Town for all I care,” Johnny snapped. “And I ain’t cheating on the girl I love.” He thought that would be the end of it. I thought that would be the end of it. Until Peanut pulled me into one of the other rooms when I was about to leave. The room had a wall missing, and a window that lead out into the alleyway. “I think you’re onto something,” said Peanut. “Johnny ain’t dated no one else but Lola. But you can’t just set him up with any girl. He won’t date anyone but a “greaser girl” his pride won’t let him.” “That really widens the search,” I muttered, slightly sarcastically. “There was one girl. She used to be a greaser. Couple of years ago she left. You know Becky Delaney?” I nodded. “Yeah. I know her.” “Ask her. They got on pretty good. Until she got together with Ricky. She didn’t come round the turf much no more.” Made sense. Out of all the girls in the school, Becky was the most opposite of Lola. Where Lola was manipulative and a user of boys, Becky took pride in being single and made friends of all regardless of what other people thought of them. ^^^ I stood outside the girl’s dorms, wondering how I could play this. How do you just walk up to a girl and ask her to date some guy just once? Especially when that guy was known for going crazy over a girl he could seriously go without. Becky walked out the doors, carrying a stack of bright colored papers. Probably flyers for some protest she was planning. “Hey Josh,” she said, as she reached the bottom of the stairs. Becky handed me a flyer. “Thanks,” I said, folding it up and putting it in my pocket without reading it. “Make sure you do read that. Slawter is trying to reinstate the rule that biology is mandatory. We have to fight.” “Yeah, I will, later.” “So, what can I do for you?” she said, walking along towards the small plaza. “This may sound totally crazy,” I said, walking beside her. “It is about Johnny.” “I figured as much.” Becky let out a exasperated sigh, as she begin handing flyers to everyone who passed us. “Right, what has he sent you to ask me for?” “Nothing. In fact, he didn’t even ask me to do anything.” “Then what do you want?” “Basically the thing he has with Lola is doing some serious damage to him. Emotionally. Mentally. I figured if he could go out with one girl who didn’t treat him like that, he would see there is another way, and come to his senses.” Becky laughed. “So you’re playing matchmaker now? So you want me to—oh, no.” The laughter in her face sank. “Not happening. I walked away from that life. I’m not going back to being some greaser’s trophy. Go rope someone else in.” “Oh, come on, Becky. You just have to go on one date with him. You don’t even have to call it a date.” “And let me guess; I have ask him? No!” “Please? As a favor to me? I’ll do anything you want.” “Anything?” Becky asked. Her grey eyes glistened at the thought. “Anything,” I confirmed. Becky slapped the flyers into my arms. “Hand all these out by sun down, and I’ll go on this pity date with Johnny. He better not try anything, and if he takes me to Burger the date is off.” “Fine.” “Alright then, we have a deal. Besides, this might actually work in my favor. Mandy always did have a thing for him. Might piss her off good.” Becky walked away, going towards the girl’s dorm. I turned around, and found a sight I really didn’t want to see. Johnny stood there, open mouthed. That look on his face again, where I didn’t know what he would do. “How much did you hear?” I asked. “Everything,” said Johnny. “Look, Johnny, I’m…” Johnny cut me across. “Why is this so important to you, that I break things off with Lola?” “Because, you seriously saved my ass. Those Preps would have beaten the crap out of me in front of the whole school just for their amusement. You helped me when no one else would. I can’t just sit back and watch you torture yourself. I have to help you, just like you did for me.” He closed his eyes, and shook his head. A smile spreading across his lips. “Josh, I ain’t surprised. From the first moment I met you, I knew it. You’re a good kid. Alright. I’ll go on this date with Becks. If you complete her end of the deal.” Johnny did go on that date with Becky. I managed to hand out the flyers just in time. As it turned out there was more than just Becky who hated biology. Friday night—two days after the deal was made, Johnny took Becky up to the outlook in Old Bullworth Vale, and learned there could be a different kind of relationship with girls; friendship. Becky always did like Johnny Vincent, as a friend, and one of her regrets of leaving the greaser clique was losing all her friends. She believed they would take Ricky’s side, over some broad who turned her back on them. ^^^ After the date happened, Johnny came to my dorm to tell me about it. Pete and I were in the middle of a game of blackjack. There was knock at the door. I assumed it was Gary coming to mock Pete. Or try to mess with us. I rolled my eyes, throwing down a 17 on the small table we had pulled out between our beds. It used to have the alarm clock and lamp on it, but we both decided those two things looked better on the desk. “I’ll get rid of him,” I said. I climbed off my bed, and went over to the door to open it. “Johnny! What’s up? How was the date?” I stepped aside, allowing him to enter. I shut the door behind him. “Good. Real good. Becky and I talked. A lot. Kinda felt like old times.” Be paced, unsure what to do with himself. I suggested he join our card game, and he did. Then he told the story of what happened. “Becky gave me some real good advice. She told me following your heart ain’t always a good thing. Sometimes your head sees clearer. Now I know what I want to do.” “Yeah?” I said, curiously. Becky always was good with the advice. “I’m going to give Lola once last chance, and if she cheats again, I’m ending it with her. For good this time.” Yeah, that worked. They would be broken up by the weekend is out. I kept optimistic for Johnny’s sake. Played the game of cards, lost about thirty bucks between me and Pete, to Johnny who was way too good at blackjack. He headed out to find Lola and tell her he wants her to be exclusive. I looked to Pete, eyebrows raised, once Johnny was out the door. “Alright, Pete, what do you know?” “I don’t know anything,” said Pete, lying very badly. “Liar. You’ve been quiet since Johnny stepped through the door.” “Sarah and I saw Lola making out with Justin near the tunnel to the carnival.” My head drooped in defeat. “Being a greaser is going to kill me.” “Yep. How is that working out for you?” “Like a headache that comes on every time I get sucked into the whole Johnny and Lola drama. Only they haven’t got just Peanut as their go between, they have me now. Oh, and Lola hates me because I turn her down every time she tries to use me to make Johnny jealous. Did I mention the whole thing is going to cause a massive rift in the greasers? One that is going to come to a full on clash on Sunday after the bike race?” “Beam cola?” said Pete. “Please.” The moment Pete was out the door, I slumped back on my bed, massaging the headache out of my temples with my fingers. And I thought this decision would be a good one. The Preps had their issues, but they weren’t on the verge of imploding. Or if they were, they were much better at hiding it. Pete came back with a can of Beam Cola. The sugary taste really helped. No wonder the greasers smoked so much. If this was my future, I would need some kind of addictive habit to cope. Category:Blog posts Category:WayfinderOwl's Fanfiction